1) Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to a reversible jaw snap ring pliers comprised of similarly shaped handles contiguous to two one-piece overlaid mounting sections coupled by a joint and jaws assembled onto the handles, with the innovative features including jaws that are structurally capable of bi-directional engagement, with straight pointed tips constructed at one end and curved pointed tips constructed at the other end and, furthermore, by alternating the direction of the straight pointed tips and the curved pointed tips, the user can as required engage the end holes of snap rings vertically or horizontally and thereby install and remove snap rings.
The reversible jaw snap ring pliers of the present invention is capable of the distension or compression of snap rings to thereby manually seat or unseat snap rings to and from grooves machined along the outer diameters of shafts and the inner diameters of holes and openings.
2) Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, there are generally two types of conventional snap ring pliers in common usage at present. The snap ring pliers shown in FIG. I is comprised of similarly profiled handles 1 contiguous to two overlaid one-piece mounting sections coupled by a joint and jaws 6 pinned to the joint section; of which, a set of aligned protrusions are situated at the upper and lower extent of the joint section of the said handles 1 and, furthermore, projecting in opposite directions from the upper and lower ends are mounting pins 11 (i.e., the upper end mounting pins face inward and the lower end mounting pins face outward); disposed at an appropriate location along the middle section of the handles 1 is a tab 1 that provides for the installation of a spring component 13 that maintains the two handles 1 in an opened state; the said jaws 6 are straight and pointed in appearance and, furthermore, have insertion holes 61 that match the arrangement of the mounting pins 11 and thereby enable them to be sleeved onto the mounting pins 11 of the handles 1; as such, user requirements are met in that assembling the jaws 6 onto the mounting pins 11 at the upper end and the lower end enables the two sides of the handles 1 to be moved apart or brought together so users can vertically achieve the seating of snap rings into grooves machined along the outer diameters of shafts and the inner diameters of holes and openings.
The conventional snap ring pliers shown in FIG. 2 is comprised of the same arrangement of the handles 1 depicted in FIG. 1, but is equipped with jaws 7 that are curved and pointed with insertion holes 71, which enables users to horizontally achieve the seating of snap rings into grooves machined along the outer diameters of shafts and the inner diameters of holes and openings.
However, the said conventional snap ring pliers do not function as expected during actual utilization, with the shortcomings summarized below.
1. Impracticality
When the conventional snap ring pliers are utilized vertically to distend or compress a snap ring in a shaft hole, the straight pointed jaws 6 must be assembled to the top end of the handles 1 to enable their direct insertion into the end holes of the snap ring necessary for accomplishing installation or removal; however, if it is to be utilized horizontally to distend or compress a snap ring in a shaft hole, the curved pointed jaws 7 must be assembled to the top end of the handles 1 such that after the horizontal insertion, the end holes of the snap ring are directly engaged to accomplish installation or removal; as a result, jaw shapes must be frequently alternated as required during utilization which leads to troublesome usage; furthermore, since there are two types of Jaws 6 and 7 that must be respectively assembled, both types must be kept in a common place to facilitate alternation as needed, with the misplacement of either type of jaw precluding the full utilization of the tool as claimed by its original design objectives.
2. Higher Production Cost
Since the conventional snap ring pliers involve the assembly of two differently shaped jaws 6 and 7 onto the handles 1 to enable users to alternate jaw shapes as required, during the production of the said jaws, the fabrication of the two differently profiled jaws involves the use of two respective molds, which not only complicates production, but also involves a wastage of raw materials in that two separate jaws have to be fabricated, which leads to higher production cost.
In view of the said shortcomings, the inventor of the invention herein conducted extensive research, including repeated testing and refinement, which culminated in the successful development of an entirely original reversible jaw snap ring pliers that eliminates the said shortcomings of the conventional products and, furthermore, is capable of providing significantly greater practical performance.